African despots should know it is not business as usual

It did not come as a surprise that a flagrant attempt by Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza to extend his presidential term touched a raw nerve among frustrated citizens who made use of the freedom of assembly to show their disgust.

A similar attempt was strongly opposed last year in Burkina Faso where displeased electorate brought down the statue of the President and set Parliament ablaze in what rekindled memories of the country’s most talked-about revolutionary, the late Thomas Sankara.

These are alarm bells that Africans should ignore at their peril. The citizenry across the continent is now enlightened and it will no longer be business as usual.

While some African leaders seemed to be still stuck in the old days of iron fist rule and leadership by fiat, their citizens are utilsing modern platforms and tools to organise and mobilise themselves to liberate their countries from the yoke of malfeasance and hubris.

One thing with Sub-Saharan African leaders is that they seldom read the signs of the time. The leaders don’t seem to have learnt anything from the Arab Spring, which was conceived in Tunisia and quickly spread in Arab north like wild fire. They may have thought that their citizens are too hunger-stricken to take to the streets and initiate an overthrow, but it is slowly dawning upon them that there is nothing as dangerous as a hungry dog.

Why one would be bent on sneaking a clause into his country’s constitution seeking to extend his term limit as Nkurunziza tried to do defeats logic? The surest way to win public sympathy and approval is to slay the dragon of graft and generally ensure that everything works. And this does not require much work as the necessary legal and institutional infrastructure is already in place.

But rather than wage the war against corruption and other ills afflicting the continent, African Presidents are wont to heap blame on the West and the Civil Society for all that is wrong with their countries.

Laughing stock

Just how did America help an African leader stash billions in a foreign account? How does the Civil Society block African governments from purchasing necessary equipments for their hospitals? How did Britain turn our education systems into a laughing stock of the world?

So sorry is the state of affairs in the continent that the leaders themselves have no confidence in the services they themselves offer in their countries. When the recently-elected Zambian President was taken ill soon after being sworn into office, he got onto a plane to seek treatment abroad. And Zimbabwean President Robern Mugabe is an unapologetic consumer of their apparently superior health service.

Africa is not what it used to be. It may be fraught with dark people, but it is not as dark as its leaders want to paint it. Today when you walk along streets and village paths, you encounter people with an eye to the future despite the wretchedness brought about by massive looting of their coffers.

The advent of social media has sent even more panic to the gluttonous crew who now have to keep looking over their shoulders as they know they are up to no good.

Technology has empowered us and all one needs is to log on to Twitter or Facebook and express outrage against deprivation of rights and basic needs.

Prometheus in Henry Wadsworth poem, Longfellow, was right when he said “whom the gods want to destroy, they first make mad.” The African President is mad and is headed straight for destruction.